By Charissa Luci-Atienza Turn the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) into a "Big Brother" house. This was the "cost-effective" measure proposed by ACT-CIS partylist Rep. Rowena Niña Taduran to stop the illegal activities at the national penitentiary. The maximum security compound of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa (Jonathan Hicap / MANILA BULLETIN) “I’m from the media, so my belief is that information is power. If the people are able to see what is going on inside the NBP, hopefully it will prevent the occurrence of all these illegal activities that are carried out in secret within the prison walls,” Taduran said in a statement. “If the CCTV feed at the entrances and common areas were broadcast live over the internet, someone is bound to notice if they are smuggling in girls or large screen TVs, or putting up new “kubols” and report it to the authorities, or simply post a video-grab on social media,” she added. She made the proposal, citing the "prohibitive cost" of proposed installation of an artificial intelligence monitoring system at the NBP made by Baguio Mayor and former PNP Deputy Director General Benjamin Magalong. "But the problem with Magalong’s proposal is the prohibitive cost of such a system, and the time it would take to set up,” Taduran said. "Pustahan tayo kahit maaprubahan ang P400 milyon na budget para diyan, hindi pa maitatayo yan sa isang taon(I bet that even if the P400 million budget is approved for that, that will not be set up within a year),” she stressed. She said the feed from the NBP’s current CCTV system should be simply webcast for the public to see what is happening inside the NBP. Taduran earlier proposed to exile high-profile inmates to an island in the West Philippine Sea. “The original aim of my proposal, of putting these convicts on an island with no cellphone signal, no guards to bribe, and no means of escape, was to put a stop to all the shenanigans these convicts are doing at the NBP,” she said. “This could also be effectively accomplished with a high tech monitoring system like the one proposed by Mayor Magalong,” Taduran said, maintaining that exiling high-profile convicts to the West Philippine Sea remains the best solution.